- getting back in the saddle -

Okay, so after some friendly encouragement from this lovely lady, I decided try my hardest to get back into the saddle and start writing on this blog again! The thing about stopping a regular activity is, it's always so hard to get started again! I have a million things I want to write about, but it's been so hard making myself sit down and type. Part of it is lack of sleep...if you follow me regularly on any type of social media, then you already know we are having big problems with Ellie's sleep. It's nothing new...been going on for at least 3- 4 months consistently, but before that, on and off since she was born. But it's really been taking a toll on us, and our daily lives. The things about lack of sleep in an adult, is that it just keeps building and building until one day you question how you are even functioning. Lack of sleep in a child keeps building until the child is so over hyper, delirious and out of control. After months of lack of sleep in our house, let's just say the perfect storm has been brewing around here. And it's hit...multiple times in the past few weeks...and it hasn't been pretty.

So, all of this is my "excuse" for being absent around here lately, but I realized how much I miss it, and how much I really need this outlet....especially now. I can't guarantee that my posts will be super cheery and rosey right now...but a long time ago, I did promise that this blog would be kept real and transparent. So I know some of my stress will probably be reflected in some of my upcoming blog posts (and I know it already has after re-reading some of my posts from the last couple of weeks). But we all take the good with the bad right? And this is real life, and that's exactly what I promised myself I would blog about.

So, I guess this post really has no point other than to say I'm going to do my best to get back into the saddle and get back to writing here. I'm not going to promise a certain number of posts per week , because I'll just end up not being able to keep up (or worse, I will drive myself crazy forcing myself to keep up). So instead, I'll just say I am going to get back at it as often as I can.

I saw this the other day and had to laugh...hard...because it is so, so, so true! And then, when I saw that it was listed under the "Cry for Help" section on someecards website, I just had to laugh even harder. Again, so , so, so true!

p.s.- back to the "non sleeping" child issue...has anyone used melatonin with their toddler? I am hearing that a lot of people know people that use it for their kids, but no one that has used it directly for their own kids. I have tried some of the other "all natural" products out that like Hylands Calm Forte for Kids with absolutely no success. But I am so hesitant to try melatonin because I have seen some negative things online about using it on toddlers. Of course, my pediatrician is away for 3 weeks, so I can't ask her about it (she never really suggested it to me when I've discussed Ellie's sleep problems before, so my guess is it's something she either doesn't recommend or something that she doesn't have much knowledge about). The interim pediatricians that are filling in for her aren't much help either. But I would love to hear first hand if anyone has tried it with their child in the past, and how it worked, and if there were any negative side effects.